Tents have been used for centuries as temporary structures for camping trips. During these trips, there may be competing desires for comfort on one hand, while a camper may still desire to get away from the complications of city life. The use of lightweight materials has made the satisfaction of these competing desires more easily accomplished. Tent fabrics, as well as tent poles and frame structures, can now be made to be very strong, while also very lightweight. This use of materials allows more imaginative and varied structures to be designed, which are still light enough to be easily portable, and thus practical for camping trips.
Another pair of competing needs facing campers and users of tents is that of the need for a reasonably small floor space, while providing enough internal volume for comfort. When camping in the woods, the extent of usable flat ground area may be limited, by trees or uneven terrain, thus a tent which has a large “footprint” or floor area will find fewer useable sites than one that has a smaller footprint. At the same time, a user will generally feel a need for “elbow room” and may feel cramped without a reasonable amount of space.
Thus there is a need for a tent which has a compact footprint, but which has an interior volume which is greater than that of a tent having the traditional inwardly tapering, or even strictly vertical walls.